Dear DESCA working group,

My question concerns section 6.4.2.3 of the DESCA template, second sentence:

‘ A Party that is not a Member of a particular Consortium Body may veto a decision within the same number of calendar days after the draft minutes of the meeting are sent. ‘

The problem with this provision in my view is that section 6.2.4.1 mentions on which grounds a ‘Member’ can veto decisions, however following section 6.2.4.3. a veto can also be exercised by a party that is not a Member. It is not clear if this is on the same grounds as a member, therefore either a reference to 6.2.4.1 needs to be included (for example ‘on the grounds as included in section 6.2.4.1.’) or the grounds need to be included in this section 6.2.4.3. as well, since otherwise it seems a non-member party could veto a decision on any grounds of its choice.

A more practical point is that the minutes of a meeting will only be sent to the Members of a consortium body, how will a party wanting to exercise a veto, that is not a Member of the consortium body, know that the minutes are sent and that their term for exercising a veto has commenced?

I’m wondering if there’s a reasoning behind this. Also I’m wondering if a process has already started to work on a template for a DESCA template for Horizon Europe, and whether current feedback on the DESCA template will be taken into account (or if there will be a possibility for feedback, which I would gladly provide).

Thank you.

Mr. Jan Maas, Legal Counsel, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands